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Published: February 15th 2011
February 6 The rugby game was postponed until 3pm today due to the heavy rain, and we were going to catch the 3:00 ferry back to the mainland so we scrapped the idea of staying on Stewart Island to watch it. I'm not sure I would have been up for the 1km walk to the field anyway as I was laying on the couch in the hostel in agony with what I can only assume was a broken back. Or at least what felt like one according to my limited medical expertise.
When 3 o'clock came we hobbled down to the harbor and boarded the ferry, a sturdy catamaran style vessel that seats over 80 people and handles even large waves pretty well. Good thing too. The sea was angry that day and the ups and downs brought more than a few people to their limits. Vomit was coughed up by several people and I was glad that neither Nick, Andrew, or I was a part of any of it.
Back on land, we got the car and headed back to Margaret and Brian's house. We had another lovely meal, shared stories of the past week and a
half, and went to bed.
February 7 Not wanting to permanently sully Margaret's washing machine, we took our tramping clothes to a commercial laundromat. We used enough detergent that I was convinced we'd have one of those scenes where suds come unstoppably pouring from the machine, but (un)fortunately that didn't occur. What did come of it were clothes that appeared clean, but are almost certainly infused with permanent smells of tramping.
Back at Margaret's place we gave her flowers and profuse thanks that can hardly begin to compensate her for all the hospitality and generosity that they have shown us. We took a few pictures, said goodbye, and were off. We were headed north, not to come this far south again during our journey.
Then we drove 2 hours to Dunedin, a college town on the east coast. There we got a cabin at a motorpark and made our plans for the next few days.
February 8 Today was going to be a highlight of our trip. The main reason for coming to Dunedin was to take the tour of the Speight's Brewery, a southern NZ beer that has been part of
many of my NZ celebrations and a brand that I really enjoy. It's a shame we can't get it in the USA.
The tour was fantastic and was far more in-depth and interesting than the one I've done of the Coor's brewery in Colorado. They covered everything from how the old wooden casks were made to the historical significance of many ingredients, and to the uniqueness of the brewery and some of their processes. They clearly take a lot of pride in their beer and it shows. Our tour guide was also extremely knowledgeable and entertaining. He even made fun of the Australians on our tour for their tardiness, inability to shut up while he was talking, and general stupidity.
Then at the end we had the sampling where we even picked up some good info on properly enjoying different flavors of various types of beer. All in all, a good use of a rest day.
Then we drove the 3-hour drive from the east coast back to Queenstown in the mountains, where we'd been 2 weeks earlier. Andrew had forgot his glasses at a hostel there and hoped that they had indeed kept them for him
as they said they would. They had, so he was happy.
So we found a campsite and settled in for the night. My back is feeling quite a bit better already so I'm hoping one more day of rest will be enough before starting the next tramp.
February 9 We figured that the best way to follow up the beer tour from yesterday was to do a wine tasting today. So we stopped in Cromwell on our way to Wanaka at the Wooing Tree vineyard and tasted a wide range of wines. We all enjoyed one type in particular so we got a bottle to go with dinner.
In Wanaka we checked in to the Matterhorn South hostel (named for Mt Aspiring, which bears a striking resemblance to the Matterhorn of Switzerland), which is my favorite hostel in all of NZ. We weren't disappointed tonight either. Tonight they are having a BBQ in honor of birthdays of 2 staff members, so we got to attend the party too.
I also double checked the CDs we had paid a photo shop to burn with all of our pictures so far in the trip before deleting them
off the full memory cards, and found that the girl from the photo place failed to do it correctly and had put none of our pictures on the discs! Glad I double checked that.
February 10 We had several options for our next hike and we decided to let the weather forecast and current river levels dictacte which one we would start today. At the DoC office we were told that river levels in the area were still too high to cross to start the track over Rabbit Pass, but I looked at the river (which I've crossed before) and thought that we might be being given overly pessemistic info as is often the case when Americans talk to DoC employees. But we had other options and decided to accept the warning and do a climb to Mt Brewster instead.
So we packed up our bags and food for 2 nights and headed up the trail to Mt Brewster hut. It's a steep climb, 3000ft straight up through forest until you get above the treeline where the hut sits on a spur with fantastic views of Mt Brewster and the surrounding glaciers. I was at this hut
last time I was here in NZ, but it was such a great spot that I thought Nick and Andrew should experience it as well. Plus I wanted to climb the peak so hopefully I'll do that tomorrow too.
And it was really interesting when I looked through the hut logbook and was able to find an entry by Eric and me from December of 2009. It's amazing how fast time has gone by since then.
February 11 8 people from the hut were planning to climb Mt Brewster today, so I thought it might be a good chance to follow them up to see if I could copy their route up. They all had ice gear and climbing ropes, and I only had ice gear... mostly. I have an ice axe and a pair of microspikes, which are like half-breed crampons that have shorter spikes, no front-pointing spikes, and are much lighter construction. The result is a device that is erally easy to put on over hiking boots, light to carry, and effective on most ice except for really steep slopes. So I figured I was adequately prepared and could just turn around if the situations
got too bad.
People were stirring in the hut by 5am, so I got up at 6 and left last at 6:30. Earliest start yet, and hopefully a record that will stand. I caught both of the groups within an hour and decided to take the lead, as I had a pretty good idea of how to get up the mountain. I reached the glacier and put my spikes on and got out my axe. Danny and Anna, a couple I met along the way this morning, caught up at the ice, so we decided to traverse the glacier together for safety. It was 2km of glacial travel that was gradually uphill, but really pleasant and easily manageable with my spikes. Soon we reached the head of the glacier and jumped onto the rocky ridge. The rock started off nicely as smooth grooved granite, carved this way by older glacial activity, but soon turned to the crap rock that we'd heard this mountain was made of.
We reached a glacier on the ridge that proved to be the first real challenge of the climb. The ice was compacted snow and came to a pointed ridge like a steep
sand dune. One side sloped toward jagged rocks and the other side dove off for 1000ft free-fall down to the glacier we had walked up on. As I straddled this ridge with one leg dangling on either side and my axe planted in the ice, inching my way across, my water bottle popped out of my pack pocket. And of course it fell down the long dropoff side. I watched in dismay as it slid and bounced its way down the glacier in a fall that lasted at least 15 seconds before it disappeared into a crevasse where it will live under the ice until the glacier spits it our of the bottom in 1000 years. So there would be no more water today except for what Danny would offer. And a glacier can be a surprisingly dry place in terms of finding water.
Beyond this section the ridge became a scrable up scree where rocks were continually slipping from underfoot as well as randomly from perches above us. The sound of a boulder tumbling past you in loud, extremely loud, and quite unnerving. Then the ridge turned into a knife-edge for about half an hour. Fortunately there was
minimal wind otherwise it would have been more treacherous. But soon the summit came into view and I arrived. The view was spectractular and worth the effort. I waited for a bit for the others to arrive before beginning my descent down the same way I'd come up. Everyone else had ropes and harnesses and were going to rapell down the face to the glacier. They offered to rig up a harness for me, but I said no thanks and went down on my own. My way somehow ended up being much faster and within another 4 hours I was back at the hut in time for an early dinner. The rest would stagger back as the daylight was fading around 9pm.
It was a great day with magnificent views. I reached the highest point I've climbed to in NZ at 2500 meters (about 8000ft), and had a nice intro into mountaineering.
February 12 I guess climbing the peak yesterday took more out of me than I thought since I awoke sore in new places and more more sunburned than I had thought. We lounged around the hut until it had cleared our around mid-morning and then
enjoyed about an hour of quiet there before heading down the mountain. Going down took much less time than going up had taken and we were relieved when we reached the river at the bottom just as the rain was starting. We quickly forded the river, got the car, and took off.
Heavy rainfall of more than 4 inches is expected tonight so we decided to get a cabin at the motorpark in Makarora, a small village only 20 minutes from Mt Brewster. From here we'll look at our options for the next tramp.
February 13 I wandered over to the DoC office this morning to check the weather outlook for the next few days and saw that today and tomorrow still had rain forecasted, but the 3 days after that would be really nice and free of storms. So we decided to drive to the west coast and hike to the Welcome Flat hotsprings for the next few days and come back here when the weather is better to do the tramp where river crossings are necessary.
So we drove for a few hours west to the coast and then north to Fox Glacier where
we checked the local forecast again and enquired about the state of the track to Welcome Flats. The storm was already there and was forecasted to dump 250mm (10 inches) of rain over the next day. Hearing this I knew that the largest stream crossing just before the flats, which is small under normal conditions, would probably be a raging torrent and difficult to cross. So we decided to find a cabin at Fox Glacier township and wait to go up there until the rain eases.
February 14 The rain stopped during the night so we left the motorpark and hit the trail by 8, eager to get to the hotpools with lots of time to enjoy them.
The walk was easy, gradually uphill with many small stream crossings. Many of these were running much higher from the rain, but most crossings were bridged. In fact, 2 of the largest gorges had the longest swing-bridges across them that I've encountered yet. It was pretty cool to walk over 100ft in the air across these with the water down below and the only thing holding you there being a mix of thin cables and chickenwire.
We arrived
at the hut just after lunch and went for a soak in the pools. The water comes up from a spring where it drains downhill into a series of 3 pools of varying temperatures: warm, hot, and lava hot. The pools are only about 2.5ft deep at the deepest, so you have to lay down to be submerged to your neck. This gives the sandflies (which are terrible) less area to attack. Fortunately I have my bug net for my head so I was able to relax in total peace. The hut warden informed us of a cool fact the the water coming out of the spring has been heated underground for an average of 250 years before it comes to the surface. It's also cool to be in real natural hotpools that haven't been tampered with or commercialized. The sandy/mucky bottom is a pleasant touch as well.
After dinner we went out once more to enjoy the pools as the stars came out. It's really an amazing setting.
February 15 There ended up being about 20 people in the hut last night and 10 of them were a rowdy group of Isreali guys who were the
worst people I've ever had to share a hut with. Despite repeated requests by the hut warden for them to keep it down, they continued to get drunk and yell well into the early morning hours. To top it all off, when I got up to cook breakfast this morning I found that they had gone into our cookset and used our dish towels to wipe up part of a ashy/burned mess that they had made, effectively destroying our towels. That was the final straw.
When we were all packed up and ready to begin the 5-hour hike out, I made one last trip inside the hut. I saw the 10 of them still passed our on their bunks and felt the urge to just start yelling and banging pots and pans together. However, that might have ended in me receiving a beating, so I opted for plan B. I gathered up as much of their eating utensils that I could find and packed them into my backpack. Then when we had hiked half an hour from the hut to the first swingbridge, I threw the spoons and forks into the river below. "I hope they like eating oatmeal
with their fingers" I said to Andrew. And we smiled for a good while after that.
An hour later further down the track, two other American guys who had been at the hut caught up to us. We got to talking about how rude the large group had been last night and then one of the guys said something that made us smile again.
"This is kind of immature, but we'll tell you anyway" he said. "Before we left the hut this morning we filled up all those guys' boots with water. It's kind of a thank-you for keeping us up all of last night."
"Well, you're in good company," I began. And shared with them what we had done to also show the Israelies our appreciation.
The other american guy also told us that the hut warden was going to do a "test" of the fire alarm system to wake them up from their hangovers since they had also kept her up all night and broken most of the hut rules. So we momentarily enjoyed the thought of justice being served, but then realized that they may be coming quickly down the trail after us
if they realized that they had been messed with. So we picked up our pace.
Back at the car, we piled our packs in and headed to Wanaka to restock for the next tramp. When we got to the hostel where we had stayed last week (I'd made reservations) we found that we'd been upgraded from the bunkroom to our own suite for no extra charge. It's nice to be known and liked by the owners.
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Kathy
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Chad
What an awesome country to spend your time in. Keep safe and will be waiting for your next blog. praing for your safety